The stacks of wood are set fire to by invisible hands, and, so soon as the flames flare upwards, the silence is broken by the booming note of a bull-roarer, which is produced some distance off in the bush.
The Tjilbakuta guardian sits beside the object like a statue, with his eyes rivetted to the ground immediately in front of him. From behind him the thud of stamping feet and the rustle of dry leaves announce the coming of the official performers, while from the other side the non-performing members step from the darkness and take up their position by squatting between two fires. When the decorated men come into view, the latter start beating their boomerangs together in perfect time to the stamping of the feet of the advancing actors. They come as a body of five or six rows, one behind the other, each man holding his hands locked behind his back and uttering a deep guttural note resembling a pig’s grunt. The folded hands held over the stern represent the tail, the guttural noise the call of the emu.
The Illiyakuta, wearing the tall Illiya Altjerra Kuta, is in the front row, and he is attended on either side by a Tjilbakuta man. The chief now starts a chant: “Immara janki darrai,” and all the others, including the sitting men, join in; the same is repeated several times. When the two parties are opposite each other, the performers quicken the pace of their stamping and extend their arms sideways, thereby widening their ranks. After this they retreat to behind the Tjilbakuta and one hears a shrill chirping note resembling the cry of a young emu.
The interpretation of this act needs no special elucidation. The decorated performers are those of the tribe’s manhood who, in all matters pertaining to the emu, have a right to communicate, through the Tjilbakuta, with the astral emu ancestor living in the great celestial domain of the ancestral spirits, which is known as “Altjerringa.” They are invoking the benign Knaninja or originator of their particular “totem” species to increase the numbers of emu on earth for the exclusive benefit of their tribe. It is the Illiyakuta who imagines that he receives the favourable response from above, and, when it comes, it is he who imitates the cry of a young emu. It often happens, however, that the chief persuades himself to believe that the Great Spirit had not heeded the appeal, in which case the last-mentioned cry is wanting. The ceremony is repeated time after time.
Altjerringa, it will be observed, is a compound word consisting of “Altjerra,” the Supreme Spirit, and “inga,” a foot or trail. The implied idea is that Altjerringa is the “walk-about” of the spirit ancestors, where they walk, and have always walked, and where the spirits of all tribes-people eventually hope to find their way.
After this act, the performance becomes less restrained and takes more the form of a corrobboree. Some of the men seize firebrands from the burning stacks and hurl them in the direction of the women’s camp. From the moment of the sounding of the bull-roarer at the beginning of the ceremony until now the women sat huddled together, with their faces buried in their hands, thoroughly cowed by the portentous happenings. When the firebrands come whizzing through the air and crash into the branches of the trees around them, sending sparks flying in all directions, they are almost beyond themselves with fear. But just at this juncture the men call upon them to look towards the festive ground and behold them dancing. In obedience to the order, the women’s fears are dispelled and soon superseded by a noticeable enravishment. They feast their eyes upon the array of manhood in gala dress, and it is not long ere they pick up the rhythm of a dance by beating time to the step. Provided the Tjilbakuta has been removed to a place of secrecy, well out of reach of accidental discovery, the men entreat the women to come up and join in the song. Thus the sublime is eventually reduced to commonplace, and the remainder of the night passes in joviality.
To refer briefly to a vegetable ceremony, we shall select the yam or “Ladjia Tjuringa Knaninja.” The preparations are much the same as those of the emu ceremony. An enclosure is first made in a secluded spot with branches, in the centre of which the “totem” or Knaninja “stick” is erected. Several men immediately set about to decorate it with vegetable down as previously described. The design in this case consists of vertical rows of red circles upon a yellow ochre background. In addition, a large plume of split eagle-hawk feathers is stuck into the top of the stick. All ordinary performers wear conical head-gears or “tdela” made of Cassia twigs, into the apices of which tightly bound bundles of grass stalks (“gortara”) are fixed carrying plumes of emu feathers (“mangalingala”) ([Plate XXXVI], 1). Other men have squat, cylindrical bark structures called “elbola” placed over their heads, which are elaborately decorated with vertical coils of human hair-string and coloured down.
One of the principal actors represents the “Kuta Knaninja.” His head-gear consists of two long kutturu, tied together with hair-string and completely covered with gum leaves, the whole being subsequently besmeared with blood and decorated with coloured down. As the assistants are dressing this character, they keep up a chant sounding like “Winni kutcherai.” Vide [Plate XXXVI], 2.
The leading figure is the “Ingada Ladjia Knaninja,” who wears a tall vertical head-piece which contains the tjuringa of the Ladjia Knaninja. The tjuringa is, however, not visible, but is covered with pieces of bark, securely tied over it with hair-string, the whole being richly decorated with vertical bands of red and white down.